Before the split that occurs between Zeb and Adam One, it is clear that there are significant tensions in this eco-group. The biggest of these lies in the group's approach to violence. Adam One insists that they are to be a strictly pacifist group, doing nothing except bearing witness. He says, for example, that "Our way is the way of peace," and argues that their only function is to "witness" what is happening around them and to "guard" the various "genomes" of departed species that they have obtained. To Zeb, this is completely ludicrous, as he explains in Chapter 46:

There's at least a hundred new extinct species since this time last month. They got fucking eaten! We can't just sit here and watch the lights blink out. Have to begin somewhere. Today SecretBurgers, tomorrow that fucking gourmet restaurant chain. Rarity. That needs to go.

Clearly, Zeb feels that something more radical is needed in order for the group to protest against what is happening in the world at large. The way he mentions particular eating establishments suggests very strongly that he is advocating terrorist attacks to show the group's agenda to the rest of the world and to gain it publicity. Adam One and Zeb therefore have very different ideas about how they should be fighting their cause in this strange dystopian world which seems to be an environmental nightmare. This issue of whether to engage in violent or peaceful protest is one of the central issues that leads to Zeb forming his own splinter group that Toby later joins.